Exciting acts added to Bluesfest lineup

BLUESFEST 2019 has added four new artist to its line up: Tash Sultana, Ocean Alley, New Zealand's Six60 and South American band Amaru Tribe.

Sultana, one of Australia's rising and most talented independent artists, just played to an adoring, sell-out crowd at the Big Pineapple Fields in the Sunshine Coast last Saturday night.

In June she will headline at the 10,000-plus capacity Alexandra Palace in London.

Aged 23, Tash Sultana is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, described as a "one-person band" from Melbourne.

Sultana identifies as non-binary and prefers the pronoun "they".

Sultana's 2016 single Jungle was voted into third place in the Triple J Hottest 100, 2016, and they also had three songs voted into the Triple J Hottest 100, 2017.

In 2016 they also won the J Award for Unearthed Artist of the Year.

Flow State, their first LP, was released last August, winning an ARIA Award for Best Blues and Roots Album. They were also nominated to another five awards, inclduing Best Australian Live Act and Producer of the Year.

Sydney band Ocean Alley will perform at Bluesfest on the first day of the festival.

Their style of music has been described as "cruisey psych, rock and reggae fusion".

The band has released two studio albums and two EPs independently. Their second album, Chiaroscuro, debuted at No. 15 on the ARIA Albums Chart and No. 5 on the ARIA Australian Artist Albums Chart.

Their 2017 track The Comedown was voted in at No. 48 in the Triple J Hottest 100, 2017.

Currently, Sportsbet has their single Confidence to win the Triple J Hottest 100 on Australia Day.

Six60 is a five-piece New Zealand band that formed in 2008.

Their albums have gone nine times Platinum in their home country, their singles 25 times platinum, plus six further gold singles and 10 wins at the New Zealand Music Awards, including Best Group in 2018.

In February, Six60 will play at Western Springs Stadium in Auckland having sold out all 50,000 tickets in 10 weeks. The first band from New Zealand to have ever sold out Western Springs.

Six60 are Bluesfest 2019 on the opening night, Thursday, April 18.

The fourth act confirmed is Melbourne based, South American artists Amaru Tribe.